The darker Face of the Earth is a 1996 play by Rita Dove based on the Greek myth of Oedipus. The play tells of a tragedy of interracial love in a plantation in Pre-civil war South Carolina. The cast of the play is pre-dominated by slaves led by Augustus as the protagonist. Amalia, the main character and white owner of the plantation bears a child with a slave and is compelled by her husband’s potential threats and the white doctor’s complicity to give it up for adoption (Dove). After several years Augustus (the son of Amelia) returns to the plantation as a slave and unknowingly makes love to her mother (Dove, 132). Upon realizing he murders Louis, his father and in keeping with the oedipal myth, Augustus plots to kill his mother but she opts to kill herself and save her son. Augustus’s fellow slaves believe that the “murder” was part of a planned uprising by Augustus against their masters.
The play is full of suspense and perfect foreshadowing of tragedies which often erupts into action. Slavery, the overriding theme of the play is depicted as binding to both the slave and the master just as Greek myths bind Oedipus. I her own words “Slavery brutalizes both master and slave.” (The play however becomes more of a theatrical spectacle rather than a dramatic literature as slave rituals, spells and conjuring takes centre stage.
Works Cited
Dove, Rita. The darker face of the earth: a play. Completely rev. 2nd ed. Brownsville, OR: Story
Line Press, 1996. Print.
